Seattle's Providence Hospital moves to a new building on September 24, 1911.

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On September 24, 1911, the Sisters of Providence move from the aging hospital, designed by Mother Joseph in 1876, to their new state-of-the-art building at 17th and Jefferson streets on Seattle's Renton Hill. The Sisters served the community from what became known as the Providence Seattle Medical Center until February 2000, when the facility and nine related clinics were sold to Swedish Hospital.

The Federal Courthouse replaced the former wood-frame hospital at 5th Avenue and Spring Street in downtown Seattle. Both the Seattle Historical Society (now the Historical Society of Seattle and King County) and the Washington State Advisory Council on Historic Preservation have installed bronze plaques beside the Courthouse steps to commemorate Seattle's first hospital and its founders.

Providence Hospital, 1910s

Postcard

Providence Hospital, Seattle, 1920s

Postcard

Sources:

Mildred Tanner Andrews, Woman's Place: A Guide to Seattle and King county History (Seattle: Gemil Press, 1994), 196-98; David M. Buerge and Junius Rochester, Roots and Branches (Seattle: Church Council of Greater Seattle, 1988), 72-75; Ellis Lucia, Seattle's Sisters of Providence (Seattle: Sisters of Providence, 1978).Note: This essay was updated on May 12, 2002.

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